Illuminated dial watch

ABSTRACT

An improved watch is provided which includes a lamp mounted in the geometric center of the watch crystal. Light impervious reflecting means overlie the lamp and a minor portion of the crystal reflecting light from the lamp to the watch dial. A pair of electrically conductive leads extend from the lamp to a battery mounted in the watch case and a switch is provided for controlling current to the lamp. The crystal, lamp and leads are integrally formed into a single unit with the leads terminating in a pair of tabs adapted to meet in electrically conducting relationship with the terminals of the battery.

United States Patent Tornquist et 'al.

ILLUMINATED DIAL WATCH Inventors: Nils M. Tornquist, Morgantown,

Pa.; Howard Kneeland, Forestville; William K. Sessions, Jr., Bristol,both of Conn.

New England Clock Company, Farmington, Conn.

Filed: Dec. 7, 1972 Appl. No.: 312,805

Assignee:

U.S. Cl. 58/50 R, 58/90 B, 240/643 Int. Cl. G04b 19/30, G04b 37/08 Fieldof Search 58/50 R, 90 B; 240/643 References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS3,566,602 3/1971 Bergey et al. 58/50 R Primary Examiner-Richard B.Wilkinson Assistant Examiner-Edith Simmons Jackmon Attorney, Agent, orFirm-Kane, Dalsimer, Kane, Sullivan and Kurucz [57] ABSTRACT An improvedwatch is provided which includes a lamp mounted in the geometric centerof the watch crystal. Light impervious reflecting means overlie the lampand a minor portion of the crystal reflecting light from the lamp to thewatch dial. A pair of electrically conductive leads extend from the lampto a battery mounted in the watch case and a switch is provided forcontrolling current to the lamp. The crystal, lamp and leads areintegrally formed into a single unit with the leads tenninating in apair of tabs adapted to meet in electrically conducting relationshipwith the terminals of the battery.

4 Claims, 3 Drawing Figures ILLUMINATED DIAL WATCH BACKGROUND OF THEINVENTION Heretofore, clock and watch dials and hands have been treatedwith various luminous compounds to improve their visibility at night andunder other low-light conditions. Although accepted and sold in thetrade for many years, such clock and watch dials are extremelyinefficient and almost totally ineffective since in darkness they onlyremain legible for the first few minutes after they are removed fromlight.

Previous attempts have been made to provide a watch with illuminatingmeans such as the schemes disclosed in U. S. Pat. Nos. 3,018,614,3,025,662, 3,114,236, 3,214,577, 3,224,184, 3,278,740, 3,298,172,3,439,492, 3,452,538, 3,490,226,

3,514,939, 3,609,960, and 3,630,015.

The watches described in the above prior art references, however, eachhave one or more disadvantages which make them ineffective orimpractical for commercial manufacture and use. The principaldisadvantage stems from the fact that the light source in most of thereferences is located at the periphery of the dial. The light sourcethus brightly illuminates the adjacent dial portions but has little orno effect at distant points. Another major disadvantage of the prior artis the location of the battery and the manner of connecting the batteryto the lamp.

Obviously, both the battery and lamp must be miniature for use onwatches. This gives rise to problems as sociated with replacing eitheror both under field conditions. In most of the prior art patents, theproblem is solved by mounting the battery in the watch strap and thelamp adjacent thereto connected by conventional means. One majordrawback of this arrangement is that it requires a particular style andconfiguration of watch band and thus severely limits the choice of strapor band available to the user.

In view of the above, it is a principal objective of the presentapplication to provide an improved illuminated dial watch whichovercomes the aforementioned disadvantages of the prior art.

The above and other beneficial objects and advantages are attained inaccordance with the present invention by providing a watch with acrystal having a lamp mounted in the geometric center thereof. Lightimpervious reflecting means are provided on the crystal overlying thelamp and a minor portion of the crystal thereby reflecting lightdownwardly toward the watch dial. A pair of electrically conductiveleads extend from the lamp to the crystal edge and battery means aremounted in the casing for suitable connection with the leads. To thisend, the crystal is provided with a pair of electrically conductive tabsat the periphery thereof with each of the leads terminating at one ofthe tabs. The tabs are so designed as to mate in electrically conductivecontact with the terminals of the battery' BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THEDRAWINGS In the accompanying drawings:

FIG. 1 is a top plan view of a watch produced in accordance with thepresent invention;

FIG. 2 is a side elevational sectional view of the watch of FIG. 1 takenalong reference lines 22 in the direction indicated by the arrows; and

FIG. 3 is an enlarged sectional view of the watch crystal and lamp unit.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Reference is now madeto the drawings wherein the illuminated watch of the present inventionis illustrated. The watch 10 comprises a casing 12 containing therein aconventional watch movement 14 governed and controlled by stem 16. Thenature and design of movement 14 is immaterial and thus may be of thetype requiring periodic winding, self winding. electric, electronic orwhatever. The top surface of casing 14 comprises a dial 18 havingthereon numbers or other indicia of time 20. The watch further includesan hour hand 22, minute hand 24 and second hand 26 which sweep acrossthe dial numbers driven by the movement 14 in a conventional manner.

The watch 10 of the present invention further includes a crystal 28overlying the top of the casing exposing the watch dial and hands toview. The crystal 28 may be formed of glass or a suitable transparentplastic material. The latter is preferred for reasons which will becomeobvious forthwith. In this preferred cmbodiment, the crystal 28 is adome-shaped member extending from a peripheral edge 30 adapted to engagethe watch casing bezel in a sealing engagement to keep out dust andmoisture. If desired, the bezel and peripheral edge can be designed inmanners well known in the art to render the watch dust and/orwaterproof.

A subminiature lamp 32 is molded into crystal 28 in a cavity 34 at thecenter of the crystal. A pair of leads 36 and 38 extend from the ends ofthe filament of lamp 32 and respectively terminate at tabs 40 and 42positioned below the edge of the crystal. Tabs 40 and 42 are formed ofelectrically conductive material and designed to electrically engagewith the terminals 44 and 46 of a subminiature battery 48 positionedwithin a suitable cavity within casing 12. In this connection, it is tobe noted that tab 42 is normally biased, by its own resiliency, out ofcontact with contact 46. A switch, in the form of plunger 50 is providedextending through the casing and contacting tab 42. When plunger 50 ispressed inwardly, tab 42 is forced to contact the battery terminal 46thereby closing the circuit to lamp 32. The natural resiliency of tab 42tends to break contact with the battery and urge plunger 50 outwardly sothat the lamp 32 will normally be out unless the plunger is held Toimprove the illumination of the dial and hands, a light shield 52 isprovided overlying the lamp. The bottom surface of shield 52 isreflective so as to direct as much light from lamp 32 downwardly as ispossible. The reflector 52 is centrally positioned on the crystal overlamp 32 and covers only a minor portion of the crystal so as not tointerfere with normal reading of the watch. It has also been found thatby providing a series of cavities 54 on the inner surface of the crystalin approximate vertical alignment over the 5-minute marks on the watchface, an increased portion of the light from lamp 32 is directed to the5-minute marks as would otherwise be available. This phenomena isbelieved to be due to the light-piping properties of the crystalmaterial.

In order to facilitate the replacement of lamp 32 the lamp, crystal andshield are formed inv a single integral unit along with leads 36 and 38and tabs 40 and 42 as illustrated in FIG. 3. Thus, when the lamp becomesspent, the entire crystal unit may readily be replaced with another unitcontaining a new lamp. To this end, tabs 40 and 42 are so designed as tomate with corresponding surfaces of the casing so as to insure theproper electrical relationship between tabs 40 and 42 and the batterycontacts. in this connection, the leads are sufficiently fine as to bevirtually inconspicuous when embedded in the plastic crystal.

Thus, in accordance with the above, the aforementioned objects andadvantages of the present invention are effectively obtained.

Having thus described the invention, what we claim l. in a watch of thetype having a watch movement including a top surface containing thereona dial and a pair of hands, a casing embodying said movement and acrystal overlying said casing and exposing said movements top surface,the improvement comprising: a lamp mounted in the geometric center ofsaid crystal, light impervious reflecting means overlying said lamp anda minor portion of said crystal, electrical connecting means extendingfrom said lamp to said casing, battery means mounted within said casingfor electrical interconnection with said connecting means and switchmeans mounted in said casing and shiftable between a 4 first positionclosing the circuit between said lamp and said battery and a secondposition opening the circuit between said lamp and said battery, saidswitch means including a manual operable portion extending outside saidcasing and adapted to shift said switch between said first and secondpositions.

2. The watch in accordance with claim 1 wherein said crystal, lamp andconnecting means are integrally formed into a single unit.

3. The watch in accordance with claim 2 wherein said connecting meansincludes first and second electrically conducting leads and furthercomprising a pair of tabs affixed to said integral unit, said first tabbeing connected to one of said electrical leads, said second tab beingconnected to the other of said leads and said tabs being positioned onsaid unit to mate with said casing so that when said switch is in saidfirst position an electrical circuit between said battery and lamp iscomplete.

4. The watch in accordance with claim 1 wherein said dial includes atleast one minute indicator thereon and said crystal further includes atleast one cavity therein vertically aligned with said minute indicatorand extending outwardly from the inner surface of said crystal.

1. In a watch of the type having a watch movement including a topsurface containing thereon a dial and a pair of hands, a casingembodying said movement and a crystal overlying said casing and exposingsaid movements top surface, the improvement comprising: a lamp mountedin the geometric center of said crystal, light impervious reflectingmeans overlying said lamp and a minor portion of said crystal,electrical connecting means extending from said lamp to said casing,battery means mounted within said casing for electrical interconnectionwith said connecting means and switch means mounted in said casing andshiftable between a first position closing the circuit between said lampand said battery and a second position opening the circuit between saidlamp and said battery, said switch means including a manual operableportion extending outside said casing and adapted to shift said switchbetween said first and second positions.
 2. The watch in accordance withclaim 1 wherein said crystal, lamp and connecting means are integrallyformed into a single unit.
 3. The watch in accordance with claim 2wherein said connecting means includes first and second electricallyconducting leads and further comprising a pair of tabs affixed to saidintegral unit, said first tab being connected to one of said electricalleads, said second tab being connected to the other of said leads andsaid tabs being positioned on said unit to mate with said casing so thatwhen said switch is in said first position an electrical circuit betweensaid battery and lamp is complete.
 4. The watch in accordance with claim1 wherein said dial includes at least one minute indicator thereon andsaid crystal further includes at least one cavity therein verticallyaligned with said minute indicator and extending outwardly from theinner surface of said crystal.